Committed to pairing music and social justice, Little City Concerts presents its second season of events in 2024/2025. We have some ambitious plans for this year, including our first staged opera, the performance of our first commissioned work, a young pianists concert for area high school musicians, and expanding our offerings from three concerts to four. You support is vital to making this season happen. 

Because we were so successful last year, we have a much lighter lift this season in terms of our fundraising goals. We are hoping to raise $4500 in this campaign: that, paired with our success in winning some local grants from The Falls Church City Arts and Humanities Council and ArtsFairfax, will help us fund the rest of the season and keep us going into next year. Our organization hopes to build on our successes from last season, and will continue to donate 50% of ticket sales to a nonprofit that matches the theme of the concert. We are also fortunate to be able to offer FREE TICKETS to students/youth under 18. Our partnership with the historic Falls Church Episcopal continues as well: we are so lucky to utilize their beautiful modern sanctuary for our performances. 

We opened our new season on Oct 19th with Waking the Witch, an immersive chamber opera by DC-composer Ashi Day that we paired with The News Literacy Project, an organization that develops media literacy materials for students. The turnout was fantastic, and patrons enjoyed a meet-and-greet with the artists after the concert. Our remaining events for the year include:

- On November 23rd we'll present To Hell and Back, an evening of music for winds centered around a fresh take on 19th century composer Fanny Hensel's Das Jahr, newly arranged by David Plylar for woodwind quintet. District5 winds are our artists for this concert, and their pairing with the nonprofit Heard represents a further development of that concept: spoken word artists associated with Heard will be reading selections of their poetry in between pieces on the program. Artists will include Walker Valdez and former Alexandria Poet Laureate KaNikki Jakarta. Heard fosters creativity, confidence, self-worth, and life skills to adults, families, and youth in need who are marginalized, underserved, unknown, and unheard by offering them artistic expression through experiential instruction and participation.

- On February 15th we'll present In Our Softening: an evening with pianist Sophia Subbayya Vastek. Sophia has paired her program with OAR of Arlington, Alexandria, and Falls Church, which is a community-based nonprofit organization that envisions a safe & thriving community where those impacted by the legal system enjoy equal civil & human rights. Sophia plans to give a masterclass to area high school pianists earlier in the day on the 15th, and will select some of the performers to perform in the evening before she goes on as an opener. In addition, Little City Concerts will be hosting a group recital for all the pianists the next day. 

- On April 5th we'll present Keith Butler, Jr and Seysew. Keith Butler, Jr is a jazz drummer and composer, and is the first recipient of a Little City Concerts Commission, which we fundraised for last season. Keith will be premiering the evening-length work with his quartet Seysow (pronounced "say so"), which includes electric french horn, piano, bass, and drums. This concert will be paired with Teaching For Change, a group that works on literacy and building model curricula around diverse books. 

Any amount you can spare will help us reach our goal of presenting our season. Thank you so much for your support in helping to bring great music to Falls Church City!